Rothamsted Research, 25 miles north of London, is the oldest agricultural research station in the world. It is internationally recognised for its long history of entomological studies, including the Rothamsted Insect Survey which has operated a national network of light traps since 1968. Most of the standardised Rothamsted traps are operated by volunteers, with approximately 90 traps running each year. Altogether, over 460 sites have run for a minimum of one year and 54 have operated for at least 15 years. This has become one of the world’s largest and broadest contemporary insect biodiversity databases, with over five million individual macro-moth records. These records are used for fundamental ecological research, linking the effects of land use and climate change with population and distribution changes of common British moths. Recently, data have been used to show dramatic declines and changes in distribution for many common species throughout the UK.
Results/Conclusions
Many scientific recording schemes rely heavily upon interested and knowledgeable volunteers for their existence and success. This is certainly true for the Light-trap Network, which depends entirely upon the dedication of its predominantly volunteer workforce, without which it simply wouldn’t function. Experience has shown that it is important to start small and expand slowly, as, however carefully planned, faults will become apparent and need correcting before they interfere with data continuity. Therefore, since its inception the Network has evolved along with its volunteers and this experience has shown how to keep trap operators motivated, how to involve some of them in identification to a high taxonomic standard and which groups of volunteers will be most reliable. The most efficient trap operators, for example, are private individuals that volunteer to take on the responsibility; whereas schools were found to be lacking in the consistency of their trapping, due to holidays and staff changes. This evolution has produced a co-ordinated and efficient system that benefits all involved: Rothamsted receives a huge quantity of consistently high quality data, volunteers are put to as little inconvenience as possible, identifiers receive training assistance and, so that they are aware of the results of their work, all receive regular feedback.
